The common practice of sustaining the life of flowers by means of water in a vase is useful for only short periods of time. Costly flowers must be discarded all too soon. Water as the nutrient liquid is occasionally replaced by aqueous nutrient solutions. Some improvement is realized over the results obtained with water, varying with the species involved, but generally the life of cut flowers is not extended sufficiently to induce widespread consumer use of such nutrient fluids.
A variant of the practice of keeping flowers in water in a vase is applied to corsages. A vial of fluid is capped by a pierced rubber diaphragm and the stem(s) of the corsage is (are) forced through the hole in the diaphragm into the fluid. The arrangement avoids spilling of the water and is more convenient for that reason, but the freshness of the blooms has only a short life. Cut branches can sometimes be kept alive in water, and some species will even develop roots and grow. Those are special cases, exceptions to the more general experience of branches remaining alive perhaps longer than cut flowers, but usually losing their fresh natural appearance before long.
Flowers when used for decorating an outdoor space are often grown for the occasion and transplanted to the area to be decorated. Few kinds of cut flowers in water can withstand the demands imposed by the elements outdoors except for short periods.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for sustaining the life of cuttings. The novel method and apparatus are useful for extending the useful life of cuttings, or for adapting the cuttings to use in more varied surroundings, or for increasing the number of species of cuttings that can be kept fresh-looking, or for all these purposes.
A further object of the invention is to provide novel apparatus for sustaining cuttings in a variety of new display modes.
A further object of the invention resides in providing a novel method of causing cuttings to develop roots.
A further object of the invention resides in providing a novel method and apparatus for sustaining the growth of produce-bearing plants after cold weather sets in.